It's not all gloom and doom, I also have some articles.

Though before I post them I want to repost the link to the gofundme, and also remind everybody that I could also use some support, if necessary, finding foster homes for any or all of the cats. (Cause, y'know, that's the priority here....) Even if you can't help financially, reblogging is also extremely helpful, or offering practical advice, or useful goods (food, cat food) so we could save our money for this. No good keeping the house if we all starve to death in the process.

Having long been genuine admirers of the United States Postal Service (USPS), which gives amazingly reliable service especially compared with many other countries, our team of investigators decided to test the delivery limits of this immense system. We knew that an item, say, a saucepan, normally would be in a package because of USPS concerns of entanglement in their automated machinery. But what if the item were not wrapped? How patient are postal employees? How honest? How sentimental? In short, how eccentric a behavior on the part of the sender would still result in successful mail delivery?

http://bit.ly/1krXCid

Opinion: Bank that helped Madoff is too big to comply with its sentence

http://on.mktw.net/1a32ljF

Colo. principal says she was fired over "disrespectful" policy towards poor children

http://cbsn.ws/1iWn4uB

London's first pay-per-minute cafe: will the idea catch on?
Ziferblat is London's first pay-per-minute cafe, based on a Russian chain where 'everything is free, except the time you spend there'

http://bit.ly/JIgIAb

Navy Apologizes After Mistakenly Sent Email

"In the memo, a Navy FOIA officer details a strategy to reject and stymie MacFarlane’s request for emails, photos and memoranda related to the Navy Yard shooting, in which 12 people died."

http://bit.ly/KwnSrd

​Former NSA whistleblowers plead for chance to brief Obama on agency abuses

http://bit.ly/1dZNAzx

More articles. Focusing on minutia helps keep me calm.

(And finances have been strained for a while, so now you know what caused the uptick in link spam!)

U.S. Cold Snap Inspires Climate Change Denial, While Scientists See Little Room for Doubt
The real story is that people have forgotten what cold is like, says climate expert.

Anecdotally, I agree. I remember when we had a big snow a few years ago, and people were taking their kids out, their kids weren't used to that amount of snow, the adults all talked about it. But we used to get piles of snow every year. That's not just nostalgia talking, either.

I don't know about the rest of the country, but we used to get a few really cold weeks every winter. And now, we pretty much don't, it's just cool.

http://bit.ly/1a1atkB

Study: 49% of Black Men Are Arrested By Age 23

http://on.wsj.com/1a0Zs2V

Radio Disney's pro-fracking elementary school tour sparks outrage

http://alj.am/1dhi69z

Rush Limbaugh says liberals invented the polar vortex

From the comments: I'm disappointed you didn't point out that Al Roker (among others) popped Limbaugh's bloviating balloon yesterday, by simply reproducing the definition of "polar vortex" that was provided in one of his college textbooks. In 1959. In some kind of little-known tome called the American Meterological Society's Glossary of Meteorology.

http://bit.ly/1fgJi9X

The government hiring people is a good way to bring down unemployment

We stopped doing it because we are stupid.

This and other gems can be found at http://lolmythesis.com

You're welcome.